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Robert’s Take: First introduced in Japan in 1998, D3 Publisher’s Simple series of budget-priced games has become a modest phenomenon. With an assortment of nearly four hundred titles spread across ten different hardware platforms, the ...

Across the past few seasons, the FIFA and Pro Evolution franchises have gradually integrated light role-playing aspects into their football simulations. However, this alluring amalgam is hardly new- developer Level-5 has been deftly blending the ...

Although the PlayStation Vita library lacks an original Monster Hunter game, stalk-and-slay supporters have been able to take solace in several viable alternatives. From Soul Sacrifice to Ragnarok Odyssey, a number of developers have adeptly ...

Not long ago, hardware and software developers were given near-absolute creative freedom. But over the years, the cost of game production escalated, thereby increasing the involvement of risk-avoidant publishers. The proliferation of game journalism has ...

Mash-ups are hardly a new phenomenon for the game industry. NES titles such as Pinball Quest and River City Ransom shrewdly combined genres- while even earlier, coin-ops like Gorf and Tron attracted players by merging ...

Robert’s Take: For many, the 16- and 32-bit eras represented the golden age of Japanese role-playing games. Although modern entries in the genre may exhibit cutting-edge visuals and nuanced play mechanics, there’s a large constituency ...

While Japanese gamers have enjoyed the virtues of visual novels for over thirty years (purportedly 1983’s Hito de Nashi no Rakuin ~Fukei Kankin Inukan Choukyou~ is the medium’s inaugural entry), the genre has only recently ...

With fifteen core installments as well as numerous spin-offs and remakes, the Atelier series is undeniably prolific, allowing players to explore the intricacies of alchemy since its Japanese debut in 1997. Stateside, the fruitful role-playing ...

Although adaptations like Assassin’s Creed II: Discovery and Assassin’s Creed: Bloodlines have tried to translate the allure of Ubisoft’s flagship franchise onto portable screens, the DS and PSP hardware weren’t quite able to capture the ...

Undoubtedly, The Banner Saga’s prologue is a harbinger of the challenges which await. Following a succinct voiceover which establishes a bleak backdrop of deceased gods, a stationary sun, and a landscape engulfed in a perpetual ...